The latest craven betrayals of Dumpty Trumpy and his brain trust will not make Ukraine submit to Russia’s terms. They will only kill more people. May these grifting war mongers choke on the billions they plan to earn from Russia, an ally of Iran, the country they are fighting an illegal war against.

Guilfoyle tried to blame AI for damning texts in effort to save her job: Guilfoyle told the White House the money-requesting texts were not legitimate, but had instead been generated by artificial intelligence. Uh-huh. “AI did it” is the new “I was hacked”. But also, this KRON4 bonus content: “I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service,” she added, although it’s unclear what exactly she was alluding to. “There were no real decades of public service, there was some…

From Japan, 1941: Countdown to Infamy, by Eri Hotta (Vintage, 2013), pp. 337-340: DESPITE HIS UNQUESTIONED INTELLECT and experience, Kurusu was an unfortunate choice in a public relations sense. To the outside world, Kurusu was known only as the man who signed the Tripartite Pact, having been photographed next to Hitler at the height of German-Japanese friendship. He was actually strongly opposed to the pact but was obliged to sign it as Japan’s ambassador to Germany in the autumn of 1940.…

For the Balkinization symposium on Diego Zambrano, How Americans Enforce the Law (Stanford University Press, 2026).Myriam Gilles IntroductionWhen the German car manufacturer Volkswagen finally confessed in 2015 to having installed “defeat devices” in millions of cars in order to cheat emissions tests, “Diesel-gate” became a staple of corporate-misconduct lore. But Diego Zambrano’s book invites us to look beyond the scandal itself to the very different ways in which two systems of law responded…

President Trump's DHS raided Ilhan Omar's (D-MN) Washington residence Monday morning, thereby placing her in a good position to play up her victimhood (imagined and now real), fund-raise, and galvanize her base.I am no fan of the antisemitic, socialist congresswoman, but I strongly object to this raid, which is an obvious, hamfisted attempt to intimidate a political opponent.But don't take my word for that. Both stories linked above note that it is unusual for the Department of Justice to take…

This week at Balkinization we are hosting a symposium on Diego Zambrano's new book, How Americans Enforce the Law (Stanford University Press, 2026). We have assembled a terrific group of commentators, including Nick Bagley (Michigan), Brian Fitzpatrick (Vanderbilt), Myriam Gilles (Northwestern), Jim Pfander (Northwestern), and David Schleicher (Yale).At the conclusion, Diego will respond to the commentators.

As if Denmark - Germany long distance international connections were not already bad enough thanks to the Talgo saga, now the regional train connections between the two countries are getting worse as well.There will be rail replacement buses at least throughout the whole of 2027 between Flensburg and Padborg at the border - DSB confirms this here (see "Ændringer, når du rejser internationalt" - I cannot link directly to it).But the problem starts this time not with Talgo, but with another…

checked my voter statusbetter safe than sorryactive in elections nolonger means you won’tbe shut out/down…you’re just another numberthey’re willing to e r a s eto get what they want

Yes, they have.. I begin with a history of how policy elites defined “success” in school reform between the late 19th century and mid-20th century. In those years, classrooms, schools, and districts that practiced “efficiency” in expanding access for students to public schooling, following scientifically designed procedures in creating appropriate curricula for each level in age-graded schools, and using public funds parsimoniously and wisely were labeled “successes” (see here) Using scientific…

Between 1949 and 1950, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the future President and Prime Minister of Pakistan, was a graduate student at UC Berkeley. During this period, he lived at 1800 Allston Way with several Indian students, including his friend Piloo Mody. They shared household chores, with Bhutto responsible for cleaning and making beds, and cooked meals together, pooling money for groceries. He was a non-resident member of the International House and worked on the dining staff, often joining…

Guilfoyle Gets Run Ever since the news broke that Kimberly Guilfoyle tried to use her Trump family connections to shake down a Republican donor for $100,000, it certainly seemed like she was a dead woman walking. And yesterday, the axe was finally swung, as the White House asked for, and received, her resignation as United States Ambassador to Greece. Click here for full story

Was talking with some friends the other day about my concerns with the increasing number of surveillance cameras (and other devices) that seem to be springing up all over my city. See here: What are these cameras up to? Anyways, I mentioned the company Palantir, which nobody had heard of. When I explained what they were about, there was much doubt that they would be up to anything that malevolent in Australia…. The company specialises in creating detailed profiles of people by combining large…

The term “no-brainer” refers to a suggestion that is so compelling that it would be foolish to even consider not doing it. I came across a no-brainer recently, thanks to Matt Hobbs: Make all UK Government websites free to access without mobile data charges. When I was done slapping my forehead at how obvious this proposal is, I signed the petition. If you’re a UK resident, you should do the same. And then spread the word. This is the kind of proposal that I imagine any politician would be happy…

Cătălin Gabriel Stănescu, Reader in Law at Newcastle University and member of the European Commission’s Financial Services Users Group. Photo credit: BNP Paribas HQ, by Boubloub, via Wikimedia Commons A pending reference from the Greek Council of State brings an old question back before the Court of Justice: when credit is transferred to a purchaser and its administration and recovery are entrusted to a separate company, how should EU financial law classify the activities of that company? In…

Tuesdays are my busiest teaching days this Semester, but today I’ve also been preparing for tomorrow’s strike. This has largely revolved around figuring out arrangements for the picket lines. It seems that we have good numbers for tomorrow’s action, with crews assigned to all the main entrances to Maynooth Uninversity campus. I’m involved as a member of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) but there will also be pickets from other campus trade unions, Unite and SIPTU. As it…

New WonkyFolk is out (Well not really, here’s a link to a sneak preview of the episode coming later this week). Jed and I talked with College Board president Jeremy Singer about the future of college assessments like the SAT, and AP, his work helping overhaul the FAFSA after the botched rollout, and a host of other things, including his time in post-Soviet Russia. Listen to the end (and subscribe) if you want the part where he gives away the secret to getting your kid a 1600 on the SAT. ICYMI I…

“South Africans who have been scammed, hacked, extorted or harassed online now have a free place to turn for help. The Cyber Helpline, a UK charity, has launched a 12-month pilot in South Africa with local social impact organisation MiDO Academy, funded by Amazon Web Services. The service covers a wide range of incidents, including investment and employment scams, phishing, hacked accounts, fake social media profiles, sextortion, identity theft and ransomware. It is confidential and open to…

Joanna Demopoulou* Photo credit: Mstyslav Chernov, via Wikimedia Commons * Joanna Demopoulou holds a PhD in International Affairs and is a former Executive in Residence at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). Her research examines the legal and institutional architecture of public authority and governance, focusing on how law structures, distributes, and constrains public authority across European and international institutions. On live television in late September, Greece’s deputy…

This is a Meta Pixels case on appeal to the Washington Supreme Court. It fails on a highly technical interpretation of the statute. The applicable Washington state statute restricts the interception of communications between two individuals. The Supreme Court says that a corporation isn’t an “individual” for purposes of this statute. Thus, the user’s interaction with the corporate-run website didn’t have sufficient human involvement: no party disputes that SCH is a corporation, and each…

In Downgrades and Competition For Capital I discussed how AI's insatiable appetite for funds was raising interest rates not just for AI-related debt, but also for everyone else. The impact of these rate increases will take time to become evident, as borrowers roll over existing debt or raise new debt. Below the fold I look at impacts that we don't have to wait for, because they are already happening on a large scale. Krugman Chart 1 Now, Paul Krugman's AI Versus Everything Else presents a…

At Reason, Veronique de Rugy warns us that we should be terrified of price caps.Regulars here will already know that this is an immoral and impractical idea that would distort markets and lead to shortages if put into practice.Same regulars might not know how popular this stupid idea is, though:A new Wall Street Journal poll finds remarkable bipartisan support for government limits on prices, with 93 percent of Democrats and 83 percent of Republicans supporting capping prescription drug prices.…

The way we talk about private valuations doesn't make sense. They don't mean what we think they mean. Observed private valuations exceed the true value of the average startup. They bake in a severe selection bias, since better companies are more likely to fundraise. As a result, we don't have an index of private valuations that accurately reflects the broader ecosystem. We only see a narrow slice of companies (those who fundraise) at a narrow slice of time (when they fundraise). These…